Karate and walking

This weekend mostly revolved around not slobbing out.

There was a karate course in Largs, that ran from Friday afternoon, to Sunday lunchtime, but I only headed down for the Saturday practice.  There were four sessions on Saturday.  The first had started not long after my alarm went off (7.00am).  I got there for the 10.00am session, and stayed for the 2.30pm one as well, before heading back to Glasgow, utterly knackered, and avoiding the post-dinner 7.00pm session.  It was a brilliant, day, and next time I WILL do the full weekend.

On Sunday, I got up early again, and fired up the breadmaker so that Karen would have warm just made bread when she got up.  While that was baking I started to watch Ran (Akira Kurosawa movie based on King Lear), but once Karen got up, and the cats wanted attention, subtitles became a pain (can't read them from the kitchen), so I put it off, and got ready to go walking.

We jumped in the car and headed off to a forestry park near Gartmore (between Aberfoyle and Drymen) to do a walk that the book said took just over two hours, that the sign at the car park said took and hour, and that we did in about 40 minutes.  So, we looked at the board and found another waymarked route, and off we went.  In total we got our 6 miles in, and once back at the carpark, sat on the riverbank and had a coffee before coming home.

Just beautiful

Why have I never heard this song before?  This is simply stunning.  Moby is a genius.

The ongoing clearout

So, I've started the clearout, and I've a bag of dvd's that I'll take to Missing sometime this week.  (If anyone is interested and want's a bargin, give me a shout pronto)

I've also got my Praktica 35mm SLR and 3 lenses, along with a camera bag, flash and autowind, that I'm open to offers on. (Does anyone still use film?)

I've also (finally) got rid of the massive brick that was the ancient desktop, and also my Dell that blew up last year (not as spectacular as it sounds).  I stripped the hard drive, dvd drive and ram from the laptop first.  I'm passing the dvd drive and memory to a friend to use himself, and I'm keeping the hard drive to see if I can get an adaptor that'll let me use it as an external drive or something.

So, not having a desktop, there's no need for a computer desk, so when I get home, the allan keys are coming out and it's getting stripped.down and binned as well.

In place of the computer desk, I'll be making a wee trip to Ikea for another bookcase, and that'll take care of the boxes of books that are cluttering up the spare room and making it unuseable.

So, that's my (cunning) short term plans.

Next time we'll take the bikes.

Yesterday we drove down to Troon, but rather than parking in the centre of the town, we parked in the South Beach car park just as you get into the town.  Then, we walked out of town over the hump back bridge, and followed the cycle path through the country - and at one point along the side of the main road to the airport - to Prestwick, where we sat outside with coffees at Mancini's on the seafront, before having a wander along the main street, before walking back to Troon.

Unlike the cycle paths in and around Glasgow, this is a really nice scenic route stretching all the way along the Ayrshire coast.  We met a lot of people both walking and cycling, as we went.  Something else we noticed.  Outside of Glasgow, strangers are friendlier.

Anyway, I've made up my mind.  Once we're back from holiday in June, I'm getting roof bars and bike racks for the car, and we'll head down again with the bikes this time, and cycle from Troon to Ayr.

If you can get down with your bikes (train maybe), then it's a really nice route.  Give it a try.

That naked feeling

Why is it I feel naked if I forget my watch.  It's like having an itch and trying to resist scratching it.  I mean I'm sure that when I forget my watch, I go to look at my wrist way more than I do when I'm wearing it!

So the alternatives are don't check the time at all.  After all, in the words of Douglas Adams, "Time is an illusion.  Lunchtime doubly so."

OR

Use my phone to keep tabs on the minutes ticking away.

Either way, today is a chronograph fail.

WHW update

It's officially off.  We got a week in Menorca for £50 more than it was going to cost to walk to Fort William.
Go figure!

West Highland Way and being ripped off.

Our plan to do the WHW in June looks like falling through.  The problem is partly to do with the fact that we'd planned to use a bag carrying service (£40 per bag for the duration, with unlimited stops) to ferry the rucksacks between stops, so that all we had to carry was a daysack with provisions for the days walk.

The "proper" campsite outside Balmaha is a caravan club site, and has a minimum stay of 2 nights.  Now, my reading of this is "while not actually saying we don't want the backpackers walking the way, in reality, we don't want the backpackers walking the way".  So, we're left looking at another option where someone will be there to receive the bags from the company transporting them.  Sallochy campsite is partly manned, and I've still not heard back as to whether there's provisions for receiving bags.  This means a stop in Balmaha.  Bunkhouses are already full, so that's not an option.  So prices so far for one night, have been between £75 and £100.

Now, this would be repeated at Bridge of Orchy, so £150 - £200.  Then there's the two nights at campsites (approx £20 a night), the hostel at Fort William (again about £30) and the train back to Glasgow (God knows what that will cost).

Add in food and drink, and you're looking at spending AT LEAST £400 - £450 for five days "camping".  looking online, we can get a week in the sun flying from Glasgow, with B&B accomodation and preety much guaranteed good weather, for just over £90 each.

Now, I'm sorry, I really really want to do the WHW, but I don't want to get screwed over in the process.  I know the summer wild camping ban is there to stop drunken idiots from starting fires, and causing trouble along the side of Loch Lomond, but the knock on effect seems to be hotels and B&B's cashing in big time.

Holiday at home.  Get financially screwed.  You know it makes sense.